Above: Rowena Wallace & Kristylee Waine
Rowena Wallace
Born 23 August 1947 (age 69)
Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Occupation Television actor
Rowena Wallace (born 23 August 1947) is an English-born Australian actress, most especially in the genre of soap opera. She is best known for her Gold Logie-winning role as Patricia “Pat The Rat” Hamilton/Morrell/Palmer in Sons and Daughters.
Rowena Wallace was born in Coventry, West Midlands, an only child. She moved to Australia with her parents when she was five. Initially she grew up in Cairns and later moved to Brisbane at the age of 12 years. There, she attended Kedron State High School and was taken by her mother to dancing lessons at, and also persuaded to join, the Twelfth Night Theatre under the artistic direction of Joan Whalley in Bowen Hills. Her father was a pilot for Ansett Airlines.
At age fifteen, having left school and attended a business college at the insistence of her parents, Wallace decided to become an actress. She joined an advertising agency while still performing in the theatre at night. Her first television role was in Brisbane as an entertainer on the variety show Theatre Royal (hosted by George Wallace, Jr., no relation). She also hosted the afternoon news and weather and a children’s show. At the age of nineteen, Wallace was diagnosed with scoliosis (curvature of the spine). She has required painkillers almost continuously since then.
While Wallace was working in television in Brisbane, Barry Creyton persuaded the producers of a new series to fly her down to Sydney to audition for the lead role in their show; as a result Wallace won the role of Margie Harris in You Can’t See ‘Round Corners and moved to Sydney.
After completing Corners, she went on to star as the juvenile lead in a hit comedy stage production with John McCallum and Googie Withers. The show, Relatively Speaking, played to packed audiences in Melbourne.
On 12 February 1970, the film Squeeze a Flower had its world premiere in Sydney. Wallace starred in the movie as the female lead, opposite international film veteran, Walter Chiari. By 1972, she had found work intermittently. In 1973 she married George Assang (d. 1997), a Thursday Island-born jazz singer known professionally as Vic Sabrino. The marriage lasted just over a year, and Wallace has had no long-term relationships since then.
In the late 1970s she appeared frequently in Australian television, with an ongoing role in the soap opera Number 96 in 1975–1976, followed by a regular role in the police drama Cop Shop, playing policeman’s wife Pamela Taylor. After leaving that series she played a mentally unbalanced remand prisoner named Anne Griffin in Prisoner for several weeks in late 1980. Also in mini series “The Mesmerist” character & year unknown – 1980/81?
Sons and Daughters – television highlight
Rowena Wallace’s most famous role was in the soap opera Sons and Daughters, in which she played Patricia Dunne/Hamilton/Morrell/Palmer; starting in 1981. Nicknamed Pat the Rat, the character became an immensely popular bitch figure in the series; its most famous character.
Gold Logie and Logies
In 1984 Wallace won a Gold Logie for the portrayal during an era when Gold Logies were usually won by major television personalities and hosts but not actors. She was the first woman soap actress to win the award since it was opened up to Most Popular Australian Personality. Although not the first female to win the Gold Logie, with that honour going to Australian actress Lorrae Desmond
Wallace also received Silver Logies for:
Most Popular Lead Actress (1983);
Most Popular Actress (1984);
Best Actress in a Series (1984); and
Best Lead Actress in a Series (1985).
Wallace left Sons and Daughters after three years, with her final scenes going to air early in 1985 just after her Gold Logie win. Wallace claimed in a reunion documentary that she left due to exhaustion of playing such an intense character. She also claimed she regretted walking away from the role as she did not get the acting offers she had anticipated after. The popularity of her character led to it being recast, with Belinda Giblin assuming the role of a returning Patricia after extensive cosmetic surgery had altered her facial features. Late in the show’s run, with ratings in decline, Wallace was returned to the series in an attempt to boost the show’s popularity. With Giblin remaining in the show, Wallace now played a new character, that of Patricia’s long-lost identical twin sister Pamela. Her return lasted ten weeks but did little to halt the show’s dwindling ratings, and the show was cancelled shortly afterward.
Filmography
You Can’t See ’round Corners (1967/1969) … Margie Harris
Contrabandits (1968) … Carole
Hunter (1968) … Sue
Riptide (1969) … Cathy Smith
Squeeze a Flower (1970) … June Phillips
The Rovers (1969–1970) … Rusty Collins
Dynasty (1970–1971) … Betty Westlake/Jill Campbell
Spyforce (1971) … Trish Mathews
Barrier Reef (1971–1972) … Tracey Deane
Matlock Police (1971–1973) … Kate White/Susan Stone
Boney (1972) … Kat Loader
And Millions Will Die (1973) … Maggi Christopher
Homicide (1972–1973) … Primrose Taylor
Out of Love (1974) … Julia Martin
The Evil Touch (1974) … Jean
Silent Number (1974) … Sylvia Marsh
Ryan (1973–1974) … Holly Beckett/Sue Ogilvie
Number 96 (1975–1976) … Muriel Thompson
Shannon’s Mob (1975) … Estelle
Murcheson Creek (1976) … Karen Fields
Division 4 (1971–1976) … WPC Jane Bell/Andrea Hayes
McCloud (1976) … Police Detective
Power Without Glory (1976) … Harriet Marshall
Bluey (1977) … Jean Anderson
Glenview High (1977) … Pam Wilson
Cop Shop (1977) … Pamela Taylor
Bobby Dazzler (1978) … Ruth Rierdon
Burn the Butterflies (1979) … Dr. Trish Morrison
Water Under the Bridge (1980) … Honor Mazzini
Holiday Island (1981) … Marjorie Quaid
Prisoner (1980–1981) … Anne Griffin
Sons and Daughters (1982–1985) … Patricia Dunne Hamilton Morrell Palmer
Glass Babies (1985) … Dr Ruth McCrae
Sons and Daughters (1987) … Pamela Hudson
Strike of the Panther (1988) … Sgt. Lucy Andrews
Backstage (1988)
All the Way (1988)
Cappucino (1989)
More Winners: The Big Wish (1990) … Queen
A Country Practice (1992) … Justice Patricia Lincoln
Echo Point (1995) … Elizabeth O’Connor
Pacific Drive (1996) … Mara de Villenois
All Saints (2000) … Katrina Ford
Water Rats (2000) … Dolly Munro
The Finder (2001) … Irene Davidson
Home and Away (2001–2003) … June Reynolds
Code 11-14 (2003) … Mrs. Shaw
Neighbours (2007) … Mary Casey
Mind Fire (2011 IN PRODUCTION) … Dr. Rebecca Ryder
Deadly Women (2012) … Judy Moran